Noel C. Cilker

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend the San Francisco Writers Convention. It was an entertaining sight - hundreds of slightly-hunched, pale-faced, sloppily-dressed, crooked-fingered writers lurching from session to session on how to write dialog, how to find an agent and how to leave your room and interact with the outside world in general. Questions ranged from "How do I submit a manuscript?" to "I'm writing about mushrooms. Who should my protagonist be?" It was a unique circus. The first day, the conference organizer worked the registration line and asked everyone what they were writing. When he came to me, I said, "A historical narrative about the Gold Rush," to which he replied, "There's a lot to be mined there!" to which I replied back, "Very nice." (My sales pitch got better as the conference went on. Eventually I was able to say: "When Ah Toy's husband whisks her from China to strike gold i...

My, this blog looks dusty. If you are someone who's been following the progress of the book I'm writing and judged my success by the frequency of my blog posts, you've long since given up hope that I would ever finish Ah Toy's story. I don't blame you; I have  gone into Google Blogger hibernation. But unlike a hibernating bear, I've been quite busy while seeming to be comatose. Here are some of the highlights over the past five months since I've last come up for air. In October 2016, at about 75,000 words, I hit a lovely patch of writer's block. Forcing myself to keep going wasn't going to work, so I took a couple days off, grabbed my camera headed to China Beach State Park. It was refreshing to spend a few hours outdoors in great weather, smell the trees and take some photos in an effort to keep the artistic side of my brain activated. Here are a few shots from that seven-mile hike: A grove of trees that played with the light. A path t...

I will admit that I've not been paying very much attention to this blog (my last entry, I was shocked to find out, was over two months ago). I apologize, though it's for good reason. I've been writing my Ah Toy book quite regularly, and my excuse (to myself at least) is that I would rather spend my writing energy - which comes in finite daily amounts - on the book rather than the blog. Nobody has written to me to complain, which is nice, but that could be akin to saying that the baby bird is no longer clamoring for food because it has flown off in search of a more attentive parent! (I've never heard of a bird doing this, but . . .) . . . while we're on the subject, I'd like to quote from a book that I've mentioned before , Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life  by Anne Lamott. It relates to a minor panic attack I had a few weeks ago. My students assume that when well-respected writers sit down to write their books, they know pr...